STP Lancashire and South Cumbria

Healthier Lancashire & South Cumbria is to publish its plan to help make people in the area healthier, to enhance care quality across the region and to put health and care services on a sustainable footing.

The Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) reaffirms the need for health and care organisations to work together to transform services and the way people use and access them.

Lancashire and South Cumbria is one of 44 STP ‘footprints’ that have been established across England to deliver the NHS Five Year Forward View vision of better health, better patient care and improved NHS efficiency.

Local GPs and consultants and other care professionals working in local practices, hospitals and care services hear stories from patients and families day in, day out about how good services are. However, many people have experiences that demonstrate that cracks are appearing – and these cracks will only widen if we do not jointly consider how to re-design the care system to meet our residents’ needs.

Working together to transform services, the Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria programme will:

Tackle life expectancy inequality; improving the area’s health by making it easier to get expert advice, access free healthy-living and support schemes.

Improve the way that care is planned and delivered in the region in a more person-centred and coordinated way; bringing help closer to people’s homes and using technology to empower and improve the quality of care people receive.

Relieve the financial pressures on our local NHS by doing things more efficiently; such as avoiding duplication, waste and providing the most clinically effective interventions at the most appropriate time, place and way.

Encourage and support people to take their health more seriously and assume greater responsibility for their own good health.

Develop robust integrated care services across Lancashire and South Cumbria that are based in local communities and reduce the over reliance on acute hospital-based services.

Create a multi-skilled, flexible and responsive workforce with great development prospects.

Enhance the role of the third sector to support mainstream services

Establish joint system leadership across Lancashire’s entire health and social care environment.

There are no pre-determined solutions or options at this stage. In the coming weeks and months, we want people to get involved in the conversation in their local areas and help to shape these plans going forward.

FAQs have been developed to provide more information and answer any questions you may have. If you have a question, which has not been answered below please send this to info@lancashiresouthcumbria.org.uk and we will do all we can to provide you with the answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do we need change?

In Lancashire and South Cumbria we have poor health, we have poor health outcomes and we are investing in services that are not working whilst demand is set to far outweigh the resources we have if we don’t change. There are financial, geographical and health challenges in Lancashire and South Cumbria which are more serious and urgent than other areas in the country.

We need to change the health and the wellbeing of the population and support them in taking more responsibility for their health. Care and quality provided by our services needs to improve so that our health outcomes are not amongst the lowest in the country in too many areas and we need to make changes to the finance and efficiency of our services.

No change is not an option. NHS and Council organisations in Lancashire and South Cumbria face a collective financial challenge of £575m over five years which is almost a quarter of the budget if demand increase as expected and we continue to deliver services as we do now. We know that by working more co-operatively across organisations we can reduce repetition, waste and unnecessary cost while providing a better health experience for patients.

What does the Healthier Lancashire & South Cumbria footprint look like?

The Healthier Lancashire & South Cumbria footprint comprises nine Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), more than 200 GP practices, four acute NHS hospital trusts, a health and wellbeing trust and a single specialty learning disability trust. Social care is provided by Lancashire County Council and Cumbria County Council and the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. Additionally, there is an active third sector supporting health and care across our area. Within this community there is now a clear sense of common purpose and a sense of urgency around the need for change.

Will the STP replace other local NHS governance structures?

No. NHS organisations won’t lose their identity or autonomy and existing plans will remain in place. The STP process is about ensuring that organisations are able to work together across the region and across communities to plan for the needs of their population.

How do STP footprints fit with other health and care footprints?

The boundaries used for STPs will not cover all planning eventualities and there are layers of plans which sit above and below STPs. For example, neighbouring STP areas will need to work together when planning specialised or ambulance services or working with multiple local government authorities. Other issues will be best planned at a Local Development Plan (LDP) level, others at clinical commissioning group (CCG) level.

How will we involve patients?

The Healthier Lancashire & South Cumbria STP is an ambitious, draft plan which has already been influenced by the public, local and national politicians and officials and the great workforce we have across all our health and care organisations.

Over 20 public engagement events have already been undertaken. However we know this is not enough, we need to make sure local people are involved in creating the changes and will be encouraging people to get involved with their local plans. That is why we are keen to publish the plan and get feedback from as wide a segment of our staff, patients and population as possible.

What are LDPs?

Healthier Lancashire & South Cumbria represents 33 NHS and local Council organisations, along with Third Sector partners, who have come together to form five local programmes across the region:

In Pennine Lancashire organisations are delivering transformation locally with the Together: A Healthier Future

In West Lancashire organisations are delivering transformation locally with the vision for joined up care Building for the Future.

In Fylde Coast organisations are delivering local transformation with the Your Care, Our Priority programme

The Bay Health & Care Partners have been delivering local transformation with the Better Care Together programme

When will you be asking local people and stakeholders for their views?

We need to make sure local people, stakeholders, politicians and councillors are involved in shaping local plans so that better plans and proposals can be developed.

In terms of any proposals to change services, where there is an impact on local people, we will ensure that these proposals are subject to local engagement and formal consultation in line with legislative requirements.